An intolerance to musicals in my adolescence gave way to an appreciation of the all-singing, all-hoofing genre in adulthood, and I now approach them with an open heart. I first became familiar with Victor Hugo’s account of the 1832 Paris uprising, and the feud between wrongly imprisoned peasant Valjean and grumpy Inspector Javert, thanks to the non-musical 1978 TV movie. So I came to this full-scale conversion of the long-running stage show without a working knowledge of the songs to raise my expectations. Under the direction of Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech), its an overlong piece, but one driven by conviction. Anne Hathaway does not let vanity get in the way of her turn as the tragic Fantine, Russell Crowe’s singing voice is fine, while Eddie Redmayne shines as the revolutionary stude. All in all, it makes for a torrid epic.

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